SSMTP/Getmail how-to part I

This is a short how to for kicking sendmail in the buttocks and setting up a micro-replacement for send-only usage on a FreeBSD (post 5.x) system. Plus using the getmail utility to check for new messages. I spent long enough screwing with it after I miss-read some documentation (fbsd handbook/ssmtp).

The goal is to be able to use utilties such as mailx, mutt, and other MUA's dependant on sendmail (or exteneral) MTA(s) and be able to check mail easy and automaticly. I assume you at least know how to setup a mail client such as Mozilla Thunderbird or Outlook Express (or can get the relivent info) and know how to edit files as root when needed.


First we have to kill sendmail. For this we need to edit the /etc/rc.conf file, since I've cleaned mine up to place various options in related 'sections' heres the relivent one from my rf.cofing. Note all the sendmail_* options at the bottom.

#########################################################################
#                               SERVICES                                #
#########################################################################


#cupsd_enable="YES"
#background_cupsd="YES"

samba_enable="YES"

ntpdate_enable="NO"
ntpd_enable="YES"
ntpd_falgs="-c /etc/ntp.conf -f /var/db/ntpd.drift"

# Completly kill sendmail
sendmail_enable="NONE"
sendmail_submit_enable="NO"
sendmail_outbound_enable="NO"
sendmail_msp_queue_enable="NO"

Save rf.config with those sendmail lines in it and we can stop sendmail from working. Sendmails probably the worlds most used Mail Transfer Agent but for a desktop we don't really need it. While its well known for its history of security problems according to some OpenBSD people, at least they still patch it. Now with sendmail gone we have two problems.

1. Daily run messages are usually mailed to root and this might break that a tad.
2. MUA's dependant on external MTA or utils dependant on sendmail may require configuration changes or stop working

Now to fix this we want some thing small that will allow us to send e-mail through some thing sendmail compatible'ish. I'll assume that you have ports installed or know how - so go do it and update them. Personally I try to update my ports tree every few days or just before building a port if I rarly install stuff on the machine. I also prefer cvsup/csup :-)

Ok, now that you have ports ready to go lets install some software. Open a shell (or use a GUI) to cd into /usr/ports/mail/sstmp/ so we can build it. Run the commands

make install replace clean

it shouldn't take long to install so no need to go on coffee break :-P
In case your wondering what ssmtp is heres the pkg-descr:

A secure, effective and simple way of getting mail off a system to your
mail hub. It contains no suid-binaries or other dangerous things - no mail
spool to poke around in, and no daemons running in the background. Mail is
simply forwarded to the configured mailhost. Extremely easy configuration.

WARNING: the above is all it does; it does not receive mail, expand aliases
or manage a queue. That belongs on a mail hub with a system administrator.

WWW: http://packages.debian.org/testing/mail/ssmtp.html

Basically it doesn't handle fetching or checking mail or reading it but it lets you send it. While some thing like sendmail, qmail, or postfix should at least provide send/recieve if you want to go bugger setting up a full blown mail server be my guest :-)

sSMTP is really s send-only app that tries to emulate sendmail, most of the command line options to sendmail are accepted but many are just ignored. Some MUA's can check mail for us, mutt springs to mind but I rather like using getmail so far. At first I thought I would use sendmail/fetchmail/ but I saw an app called 'getmail' in ports and checked it out. Its not as buggy as fetchmail is *said* to be, its got great documentation, and its really simple. So if your going to use getmail once ssmtp is done building start on /usr/ports/mail/getmail/ while we open another terminal to configure ssmtp while getmail compiles.

Using a shell or file manager like konqueror cd over to /usr/local/etc/ssmtp/ . We can ether use the .sample files here or create new ones from scratch. We to create a ssmtp.conf file that tells ssmtp how to send e-mail to our out going mail server. The config file syntax is a cake walk, its key=value and # for comments to end of line like many a language or file has.

# Your E-Mail _address_
root=email_username@isp.net
# Your outgoing mail server, normally the TLD is .net, .com, or .org
mailhub=mail.isp.topleveldomain
# Where mail looks like it came from, just stick in your e-mail address.
rewriteDomain=email_username@isp.net
# Your hostname, your e-mail address should be fine if your not a mail server
hostname=email_username@isp.net
# Set this to never rewrite the "From:" line (unless not given) and to
# use that address in the "from line" of the envelope.
FromLineOverride=YES

save as /usr/local/etc/ssmtp/ssmtp.config and that takes care of that. You might want to nuke sendmail or reboot of course for this to take effect. Now since we do want our daily run stuff to still work we will set up an alias so mail sent to our user account locally will actually be sent to our e-mail address. We'll do this with the revaliases file in the same directory.

This ones a little bit og a bug but its not once you figure out how. Basically the syntax is like this

your_login_name_on_this_computer:your_email_address_to_send_to:the_out_going_mailhub_to_use

# Alias e-mail to the system root account to go to my private e-mail
root:myemailaddr@myisp.tld:mail.myisp.tld
# Alias my_username to my email address so I get my cron-job reports
my_username:myemailaddr@myisp.tld:mail.myisp.tld

This way the daily run and cron e-mail messages will still work and they will be in my e-mail rather then /var/mail/${USER} where I often forget to check 8=)

I've yet to figure out how to set up ssmtp for multiple outgoing mail servers but I'll figure it out later & post it.

Ok, now lets get back to getmail